Ideas for integrating Civil War across the curriculum


Language Arts

Spine Poetry (5th)
Baseball and the Civil War (related YA book?)
Monologues
Letters home
Narrative
Letter to Abraham Lincoln


Math

Spreadsheets for battles per state - graphing (also includes geography)
Word problems
Travel (distances, how long it takes, caloric intake, weight of equipment, amount of food)
Numbers of soldiers killed
Measurement - http://www.angelfire.com/me/civilian/recipes.html

Science

Uses of plants, home remedies
Role of disease in outcome of war
Weather
Medicine
Advancement in artillery, technology
Food preparation and preservation
Paranatural


Art and Music
Gravestone rubbings
Music of the time
Architecture


Social Studies

Comparison to modern day war and communities
Economics -- economies of the north and of the south; monetary policy
Economics -- impact of embargoes/controlling the ports to Southern defeat





Trip to Jamestown: photo story or video project (4th grade)

The Supply Train - how do you supply troops, move supplies, logistics, comparing costs today vs. then, transportation - cost of war

Students plot distances of troop movement, convert to student footsteps, compare distance

Communication and noncommunication - play game "telephone"`
movement of troop into battle, plot distance difference with GPS

Writers/songs known in that era and comparing with artists at same time from other countries
using wordle to compare, google maps

Measured pace (pedometer app), GPS measures speed, simulate "troop movement"
Ghost Cadet book - march from VMI to New Market
measure distance with maps






Websites
The Price of Freedom: America at War
http://americanhistory.si.edu/militaryhistory/exhibition/flash.html

America's Civil War
http://www.fredericksburg.com/CivilWar/index_html

The Underground Railroad
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad/j1.html

Shenandoah at War
http://www.shenandoahatwar.org/index_front.html#

Animated Battle Map
http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/VoS/MAPDEMO/Theater/TheTheater.html


Apps
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center